"HEY, MIKEY," said Tom, "Pass me one of those curved pieces."
"What's it for?" asked Mikey.
"It's a part of the track that curves around this corner," said Tom, pointing at the track.
"Cool," said Mikey, passing the curved piece to Tom.
"This is a lot of work," said Ivan. "We've been doing this for hours. When are we going to be done?."
"If you'd stop complaining and help us, we would have been done a long time ago," muttered Tom.
"What about Mikey?" asked Ivan. "He hasn't helped at all."
"Mikey is four years old, Ivan," replied Tom. "We're babysitting while my Mom is grocery shopping. Don't you remember? Besides, this was your idea anyway."
"Well it wasn't my idea to baby-sit your little brother," announced Ivan.
"Just quit complaining and help me finish building the track," said Tom. "Then we can have lots of fun racing."
After a long time, Tom, Ivan and Mikey finished building the track. They gathered around, excited to begin the first race.
"ON YOUR MARK…GET SET…GO!" Tom yelled.
The cars didn't move.
Tom and Ivan fiddled with the triggers, checked the cars, and tightened the track. Everything was fine. They put the cars back on the track and got ready for the race.
"ON YOUR MARK…GET SET…GO!" Tom yelled.
Again, the cars didn't move.
"What's wrong with this thing?," complained Ivan.
"I don't know, said Tom." "Everything looks right to me."
Tom got out the instructions and started going over each step again.
"This just doesn't make any sense," said Tom. "It's never done this before. It always works just fine."
"Ah," said Ivan. "Just forget it. Let's do something else."
"Yeah, O.K," said Tom, getting up off the floor.
As the boys were walking out of the living room, they suddenly heard a strange sound coming from behind them. It was Mikey, racing the cars around the track.
"Hey," said Tom. "How'd you get that thing working?"
"Yeah you little twerp," said Ivan. "How'd you do that?"
Mikey stopped racing his car, got up and walked toward the wall. "I watched you guys build it," said Mikey, pointing at the plug on the wall. "But you forgot to plug it in!"
From that point forward, Mikey was one of the boys.
"You're all right......" said Ivan, as he raced Mikey down the track.
".....for a little twerp."